Drawing attention to primes increases inhibitory word priming effects.

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Zimmerman ◽  
Pablo Gomez
Keyword(s):  
Masked Priming ◽  
Unrelated Word ◽  
Facilitatory Effect ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Response Latencies ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Lexical Information ◽  
Word Priming ◽  
Time Required ◽  
Duration Condition

Inhibitory masked priming effects in the lexical decision task (LDT) have been proven difficult to replicate. If these difficulties are due to individual differences in attention, introducing minor fluctuations in the temporal parameters of prime-target presentation should increase priming effects by drawing attention to the prime. The current study presents two experiments in which we manipulated the duration of prime presentation to this effect. In Experiment 1, we presented subjects (n = 224) with an LDT using form-related and -unrelated word primes. Subjects were assigned to a condition in which all primes were presented for 48ms, or a condition in which one-fourth of the primes were presented for 64ms. Inhibitory priming effects emerged only for the mixed duration condition. Experiment 2 repeated the procedures of the first experiment but with nonword primes. Because nonword primes have no lexical information, target item response latencies should not suffer from the additional processing time required to suppress those representations. Thus, as predicted, Experiment 2 yielded a facilitatory effect of priming. Together, these experiments show that small manipulations of the prime SOA can increase attention to the temporal location of the prime, and that when attention is drawn to the existence of primes in this manner, inhibitory word priming can be observed.

scholarly journals Semantic interpretability does not influence masked priming effects

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (6) ◽  
pp. 856-867
Author(s):  
Hayley Tseng ◽  
Shane Lindsay ◽  
Colin J Davis
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Priming Paradigm

Much of the recent masked nonword priming literature demonstrates no difference in priming between affixed and non-affixed nonword primes (e.g., maskity-MASK vs. maskond-MASK). A possible explanation for the absence of a difference is that studies have used affixed primes which were semantically uninterpretable. Therefore, this explanation indicates semantic interpretability plays a fundamental role in masked priming. To test this account, we conducted an experiment using the masked priming paradigm in the lexical decision task. We compared responses with targets which were preceded by one of four primes types: (1) interpretable affixed nonwords (e.g., maskless-MASK), (2) uninterpretable affixed nonwords (e.g., maskity-MASK), (3) non-affixed nonwords (e.g., maskond-MASK), and (4) unrelated words (e.g., tubeful-MASK). Our results follow the trend of finding no difference between affixed and non-affixed primes. Critically, however, we observed no difference in priming between uninterpretable and interpretable affixed primes. Thus, our results suggest that semantic interpretability does not influence masked priming.

Attentional Modulation of Unconscious “Automatic” Processes: Evidence from Event-related Potentials in a Masked Priming Paradigm

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Kiefer ◽  
Doreen Brendel
Keyword(s):  
Priming Effect ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Automatic Processes ◽  
Temporal Attention ◽  
Attentional Modulation ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Related Potentials

Automatic processes are usually thought to occur independently of any cognitive resources. This traditional view has been recently challenged by showing that temporal attention to a target stimulus is a prerequisite for “automatic” response priming. The event-related potential (ERP) study reported here extends this research by pursuing a somewhat different approach. In two experiments, it was investigated whether masked semantic priming effects can be modulated by temporal attention to the prime using a cueing procedure. We hypothesized that masked priming is amplified when attention is directed to the stimulus stream in the time window of masked prime presentation, even in the absence of any prime awareness. ERPs were recorded while subjects performed a primed lexical decision task. Target words were preceded by semantically related or unrelated masked prime words, which were not consciously identified. A cue stimulus prompted subjects to direct their attention to the stimulus stream either shortly before the masked prime (short cue interval) or a long time interval before. Priming affected the amplitude of the N400 ERP component, an electrophysiological index of semantic processing. Unrelated prime–target pairs elicited a larger N400 than related pairs (N400 priming effect). Most importantly, this masked N400 priming effect was strongest when the cue interval and the stimulus onset asynchronies were short. The present results show that temporal attention to the prime is a prerequisite for obtaining masked N400 priming effects. They also demonstrate that unconscious automatic processes are susceptible to attentional modulation.

scholarly journals Visual processing of derivational morphology in children with developmental dyslexia: Insights from masked priming

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 345-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAULINE QUÉMART ◽  
SÉVERINE CASALIS
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Derivational Morphology ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Semantic Properties

ABSTRACTWe investigated whether children with dyslexia rely on derivational morphology during visual word recognition and how the semantic and form properties of morphemes influence this processing. We conducted two masked priming experiments, in which we manipulated the semantic overlap (Experiment 1) and the form overlap (Experiment 2) between morphologically related pairs of words. In each experiment, French dyslexic readers as well as reading-level matched and chronological-age matched children performed a lexical decision task. Significant priming effects were observed in all groups, indicating that their lexicon is organized around morpheme units. Furthermore, the dyslexics’ processing of written morphology is mainly influenced by the semantic properties of morphemes, whereas children from the two control groups are mainly influenced by their form properties.

Visual and Phonological Codes in Letter and Word Recognition: Evidence from Incremental Priming

2000 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 671-692 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes C. Ziegler ◽  
Ludovic Ferrand ◽  
Arthur M. Jacobs ◽  
Arnaud Rey ◽  
Jonathan Grainger
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Prime Duration ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Word Priming ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
Phonological Activation

Critical issues in letter and word priming were investigated using the novel incremental priming technique. This technique adds a parametric manipulation of prime duration (or prime intensity) to the traditional design of a fast masked priming study. By doing so, additional information on the time course and nature of priming effects can be obtained. In Experiment 1, cross-case letter priming (a-A) was investigated in both alphabetic decision (letter/non-letter classification) and letter naming. In Experiment 2, cross-case word priming was investigated in lexical decision and naming. Whereas letter priming in alphabetic decision was most strongly determined by visual overlap between prime and target, word priming in lexical decision was facilitated by both orthographic and phonological information. Orthographic activation was stronger and occurred earlier than phonological activation. In letter and word naming, in contrast, priming effects were most strongly determined by phonological/articulatory information. Differences and similarities between letter and word recognition are discussed in the light of the incremental priming data.

Masked and Unmasked Priming Effects as a Function of Semantic Relatedness and Associative Strength

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 891-900 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa Sánchez-Casas ◽  
Pilar Ferré ◽  
Josep Demestre ◽  
Teófilo García-Chico ◽  
José E. García-Albea
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Associative Strength ◽  
Semantic Relatedness ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Semantic Relation ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Association Strength ◽  
Prime Duration ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Weak Association

The study presented in this paper aimed to investigate the pattern of semantic priming effects, under masked and unmasked conditions, in the lexical decision task, manipulating type of semantic relation and associative strength. Three different kinds of word relations were examined in two experiments: only-semantically related words [e.g., codo (elbow)-rodilla (knee)] and semantic/associative related words with strong [e.g., mesa (table)-silla (chair) and weak association strength [e.g., sapo (toad)-rana (frog)]. In Experiment 1 a masked priming procedure was used with a prime duration of 56 ms, and in Experiment 2, the prime was presented unmasked for 150 ms. The results showed that there were masked priming effects with strong associates, but no evidence of these effects was found with weak associates or only-semantic related word pairs. When the prime was presented unmasked, the three types of relations produced significant priming effects and they were not influenced by association strength.

scholarly journals Fast priming of grammatical decisions: repetition and transposed-word priming effects

2022 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Mirault ◽  
Mathieu Declerck ◽  
Jonathan Grainger
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Repetition Priming ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Target Sequence ◽  
Font Size ◽  
Prime Word ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Word Sequence ◽  
Word Priming

We used the grammatical decision task to investigate fast priming of written sentence processing. Targets were sequences of 5 words that either formed a grammatically correct sentence or were ungrammatical. Primes were sequences of 5 words and could be the same word sequence as targets, a different sequence of words with a similar syntactic structure, the same sequence with two inner words transposed or the same sequence with two inner words substituted by different words. Prime-word sequences were presented in a larger font size than targets for 200 ms and followed by the target sequence after a 100 ms delay. We found robust repetition priming in grammatical decisions, with same sequence primes leading to faster responses compared with prime sequences containing different words. We also found transposed-word priming effects, with faster responses following a transposed-word prime compared with substituted-word primes. We conclude that fast primed grammatical decisions might offer investigations of written sentence processing what fast primed lexical decisions have offered studies of visual word recognition.

scholarly journals Asymmetric Morphological Priming Among Inflected and Derived Verbs and Nouns in Greek

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia Loui ◽  
Athanassios Protopapas ◽  
Eleni Orfanidou
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Morphological Structure ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Derivational Morphology ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Grammatical Class ◽  
Complex Words

The present study examined differences between inflectional and derivational morphology using Greek nouns and verbs with masked priming (with both short and long stimulus onset asynchrony) and long-lag priming. A lexical decision task to inflected noun and verb targets was used to test whether their processing is differentially facilitated by prior presentation of their stem in words of the same grammatical class (inflectional morphology) or of a different grammatical class (derivational morphology). Differences in semantics, syntactic information, and morphological complexity between inflected and derived word pairs (both nouns and verbs) were minimized by unusually tight control of stimuli as permitted by Greek morphology. Results showed that morphological relations affected processing of morphologically complex Greek words (nouns and verbs) across prime durations (50–250ms) as well as when items intervened between primes and targets. In two of the four experiments (Experiments 1 and 3), inflectionally related primes produced significantly greater effects than derivationally related primes suggesting differences in processing inflectional versus derivational morphological relations, which may disappear when processing is less dependent on semantic effects (Experiment 4). Priming effects differed for verb vs. noun targets with long SOA priming (Experiment 3), consistent with processing differences between complex words of different grammatical class (nouns and verbs) when semantic effects are maximized. Taken together, results demonstrate that inflectional and derivational relations differentially affect processing complex words of different grammatical class (nouns and verbs). This finding indicates that distinctions of morphological relation (inflectional vs. derivational) are not of the same kind as distinctions of grammatical class (nouns vs. verbs). Asymmetric differences among inflected and derived verbs and nouns seem to depend on semantic effects and/or processing demands modulating priming effects very early in lexical processing of morphologically complex written words, consistent with models of lexical processing positing early access to morphological structure and early influence of semantics.

Is Masked Neighbor Priming Inhibitory?

2007 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy De Moor ◽  
Liesbeth Van der Herten ◽  
Tom Verguts
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Theoretical Problem ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Word Priming ◽  
Neighbor Effects ◽  
Priming Technique

Abstract. To investigate neighbor effects in visual word recognition, the masked priming technique holds considerable advantages over unprimed methods, because a target word is used as its own control. However, inhibitory neighbor effects obtained with masked priming are still open for different interpretations, because the primes differ across conditions. Given this theoretical problem, it is useful to investigate neighbor priming effects using a prime as its own control. This option is available in the incremental priming technique ( Jacobs, Grainger, & Ferrand, 1995 ), in which a within-condition baseline is created by comparing the response times (RTs) to a target when it is primed at different prime durations. In this study, we examined masked neighbor priming using this technique. Both the traditional and the within-condition baseline indicated that masked neighbor word priming is inhibitory in nature. The results are discussed in terms of current theories of visual word recognition.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document